Bernard Zufall (June 6, 1894–January 1971) was a semi-professional magician, performer, and memory expert who billed himself as the “Human Encyclopedia.” He was elected to The Lambs in 1942 as a Professional member. He called himself the “Human Encyclopedia” and could name the day of the week for any date between 1752 and the year 2000, and name every city in the world, among other feats. He gave demonstrations on his abilities and lectured on “memory training.”
Born in New York City, he was an assistant commercial vice-president of General Electric, Zufall was a former instructor in necromancy at the Y.M.C.A. and a member of the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Books: Zufall’s Memory Trix. Six volumes (1940):
Magazine Memorizing;
Mental File Index;
Memorizing the Calendar;
Memorizing a Deck of Playing Cards;
Memorizing Numbers;
Memorizing Facts and Figures.
Zufall amassed, at the time, the world’s largest collection of mnemonic literature, containing more than a thousand different titles (from as early as 1466 AD). The collection was given to Yale University Library in New Haven.
Bernard Zufall died in January 1971 in Queens.